Going
local' currently remains a fringe, grassroots process made up of
small-scale
initiatives. The real question
is how to steer government
priorities away from big business and
global finance, and to gain
political and popular support for an
economy geared toward localisation,
writes Anna
White.

Around the world, there is a
growing movement to pull back from the
relentless march of corporate
globalisation by re-rooting economic and
social activities at the
community level. From the burgeoning popularity
of farmers' markets
and food co-ops to the revitalisation of community
banking,
people are organising themselves
to reclaim the economy from large
profit-driven corporations and
instead build sustainable, local
alternatives.

While the term ‘localisation' has
never gained popular currency (perhaps
because it is so easily
misunderstood), it is worth considering a broad
definition for this
trend towards small-scale, community-oriented
businesses. In Localization:
A Global Manifesto,
Colin Hines
defines localisation as "a
process which reverses the trend of
globalisation by discriminating
in favour of the local". It is
important
to note, however, that this does not mean "walling off the outside
world" through nationalistic protectionism
(see Micahel Schuman, Going
Local:
Creating Self Reliant Communities in a Global Age). Nor does
it mean creating
communal autarky, with self-sufficient groups cutting
themselves off
from the monetary economy. International trade, travel
and cultural
exchange would continue, but locally-controlled,
diversified economic
activity would reorient production and service
provision towards
meeting the needs of the community first.

Why
Localise?

Individuals
and organisations who are already working to strengthen
their
communities and local economies are doing so for a multitude of
reasons.
This is not an ideologically driven movement that fundamentally
rejects the global in favour of the local, nor is it based on one
blueprint
solution or economic model. Rather, it is an organic process
motivated
by a number of interrelated factors.

Economic globalisation has
gradually increased the power of
multinational corporations and
‘too-big-to-fail' banks, not only over
the means of production and
distribution of goods and services, but also
over the entire
democratic and social process. In light of the recent
financial
crisis, where governments spent billions
of taxpayer dollars
on bailing out the
banks that were partly responsible for causing
the crisis, the
overbearing
influence of the corporate and financial services sector
has never
been clearer.

In response, people around the
world are moving to reclaim local control
over the economy through
alternative business practices and banking.
Campaigns such as Move
Your
Money
aim to revitalise community banking so that finance is
redirected
towards local needs rather than speculative profits and
bonuses.
Alternative business structures such as cooperatives and
community-supported agriculture
also encourage local ownership and
production, thereby closing the
divide between owners and workers or
producers and consumers upon which
the corporate model thrives.

A
growing awareness of the ecological impacts of a globalised,
fossil-fuel
dependent economy is also inspiring people to ‘go local'.
With the
twin spectres of climate change and peak oil looming, people
are
recognising an increasing need for localised production and
distribution
in order to build a viable alternative to the current
environmentally
destructive, export-driven model. Projects such as Transition
Towns
and Ecovillages are largely motivated by a belief that sustainable
living
requires resilient, diversified local economies. Many of the
strategies
adopted by these communities are not new; community gardens
and
local currency schemes, for example, have long been used to ensure
local
resilience.

For many people, the motivation to
rebuild local economies goes beyond
practical concerns about the
unstable and unsustainable nature of the
globalised economy. It is
rooted in a deep dissatisfaction with the
lifestyle and values
promoted by a system obsessed with efficiency,
competition and
consumerism. Re-rooting economic activities at a local
level offers a
way to rebuild the community ties that have been eroded
by a
tendency towards competitive individualism in society. In the words of David
Korten, author of Agenda
for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real
Wealth, the
broader goal of a localised economy is to shift "its
favoured
dynamic from competition to cooperation, and its primary
purpose
from growing the individual financial fortunes of the few to
building
living community wealth to secure the health and well-being of
everyone."

Promoting
Small-Scale on a Large-Scale

Currently,
the shift towards the local remains a fringe, grassroots
process,
made up of small-scale initiatives as diverse as the cultures
and
environments in which they are taking place. As Helena Norberg-Hodge
argues in her contribution to The
Case
against the Global Economy: And For a Turn Toward the Local,
for
these efforts to translate into a wholesale shift in the mainstream
economy,
they must be accompanied by policy changes at both the national
and
international level.

With politicians pandering to the
interests of corporations in the
never-ending pursuit of economic
growth, policy support for local
economies remains near to
nonexistent. Many government policies, such as
ensuring the
availability of cheap fuel, liberalising markets,
subsidising
agribusiness and bailing out the big banks, essentially act
as a form
of corporate
welfare
in support of large-scale,
profit-driven multinationals at the cost
of small-scale community
ventures. The same is true at the
international level. Agreements under
GATS and the World Trade
Organisation bar governments from
discriminating in favour of the
local, all in the name of free trade and
the logic of economic
competition.

Yet if economies are geared towards
meeting local needs first, rather
than becoming ever more efficient
at producing goods for export-oriented
trade on international
markets, the logic of competition and
‘comparative advantage' flies
out the window. The only question that
remains is how to untangle
government priorities that currently favour
big business and
globalised finance, and to gain political and popular
public support
for a more diversified global economy geared toward
localisation. In order to build a new paradigm for
development, one that
empowers communities and works within the
ecological limits of the
planet, the rules of the game need to
fundamentally change.

‘Going local' offers a way for
people to push for transitional economic
alternatives from the ground
up, but individuals, communities and civil
society must come
together to form a powerful political movement
demanding that the
necessary shift toward local empowerment takes place
through national
and international policy measures. As multiple and
interrelated
global crises reveal the socially and environmentally
destructive
nature of the current globalised economy, the time for such a
movement has never been more propitious - an opportunity that we all
must
make the most of.